[Tall Guy]

But I did discover Sibelius some years ago, after being sceptical of Finlandia for a long time. His symphonies are brilliant, quite unique, and very beautiful

I quite enjoy his nationalistic works and tone poems but I needn’t ever hear them again. On the other hand, his symphonies and the violin concerto are required listening and I work through them all in order every so often. The fifth is my very favourite, followed by the second. The finale of the fifth is stunning and rarely fails to raise the hair on the back of my neck.

Some time in the 1990s we found ourselves sitting next to a very old Finnish lady at the Royal Albert Halls proms for a Sibelius-based concert. We got talking to her, and she said she’d known Sibelius when she was young. I asked her why he wrote very little for the last thirty years of his life and she got a twinkle in her eye and with her hand she made an unmistakable drinking motion.